Carousels Theme For 81st St. Luke's Ball

SCENE IN THE VALLEY

April 04, 1993|by POLLY RAYNER, The Morning Call

Now that spring is here and the weather is beginning to cooperate, our thoughts turn to outdoors. Appropriately, "Carousels in the Park" is the theme chosen for the 81st annual St. Luke's Charity Ball being held May 7 at the Saucon Valley Country Club.

The ball, the highlight of Bethlehem's social season, is sponsored by the St. Luke's Hospital Auxiliary to benefit the Parent-Child Health Center and the School of Nursing Educational Center in the new South Wing addition.

Many hours of planning go into ball preparations, the primary fund-raiser for the hospital's auxiliary. A team of 39 committee volunteers is coordinating the ball this year. Each year the planning committee comes up with an elaborate decor for a festive setting. Enchanting describes the backdrop for 1993.

Guests won't miss the carousel as they drive to the entrance of the club on the night of the ball. The flagpole will have six to eight full-size carousel horses, on loan from Hess's and Rileigh's, around its perimeter. The club's foyer will take on a park-like setting using some of the club's wooden benches and lots of pastel-colored balloons in the theme's colors of green, peach, blue, pink and purple.

Carousel horses, of course, along with flowering trees and shrubs transported by Lehigh Valley Landscape and on loan from Lehigh Valley Home & Garden Center, will be everywhere. As guests enter the ballroom, they'll encounter an atmosphere of actually being on a carousel with the arches outlined in white light and carousel horses on loan from Marie Rissmiller, owner of Paolini's of Easton. The carousel horses can be purchased the night of the ball.

To further enhance a carousel effect, the ceiling will be draped in pastel-colored ribbons. The six dining areas will feature off-white linens with pastel napkins. Carousel horses decorated with pastel ribbons from the Ma and Pa Craft Shoppe will be used as centerpieces. These centerpieces also can be purchased that evening for $15 each. Outside tents will be decorated in a park-like setting using balloon table centerpieces, a popcorn machine, more carousel horses and wooden benches.

There will be seating for dinner at Saucon Valley Country Club for benefactors at $40 per person. At the pre-ball "calliope" reception for benefactors at the club, jazz pianist Dave Roper will entertain. Cocktails and hors d'oeuvres will be served in the ballroom and on the terrace.

There will be entertainment for everyone's music tastes. Philadelphia's Joe Sudler's Swing Machine, a nine-piece orchestra with three singers performing music of all styles -- swing, pop, Motown and jazz -- will be playing in the ballroom. Off The Wall, a five-member blues and R&B group based in Slatington with musical backgrounds spanning classical piano, jazz guitar, bluegrass, drumming, classical rock bass and versatile vocals, will play in the tent.

Some guests will walk off with such prizes as a Waterford crystal vase, a gourmet food basket, watercolor painting of their home, two Broadway show tickets, a Washington, D.C., getaway weekend at the Jefferson, a one-night lodging at the new Sayre Inn in Bethlehem, dinner for two at the Inn of the Falcon, framed carousel prints, flowering shrubs and perennials, and gift certificates from Doneckers and In the Olde Manner.

For information, call the St. Luke's Hospital Volunteer Office, 954-4600